The drive to Queenstown from Christchurch is long but does pass through beautiful scenery.

The town of Queenstown in in a beautiful setting on Lake Wakatipu. Queenstown does have a reputation as an adventure city and one can find plenty of offers for various excursions. As one might expect this also draws many backpackers and the downtown area has hostels and places to eat one would expect.

One beautiful drive from Queenstown is to Glenorchy. The road hugs the mountain which goes right into Lake Wakatipu. Unfortunately the weather was not super cooperative as we had rain for much of the day but really enjoyed what we were able to see.

Another beautiful drive we took is to Wanaka via Cardrona. We continued on 6 up past Lake Hawea to the Blue Pool trail. There we found a nice hiking trail up to what were supposed to be blue pools. We were told the recent rains had spoiled the effect.

We also ventured to Arrowtown which is quite close. It has an area devoted to the Chinese who came for the gold rush.